Perhaps we have come far enough to accept the amazing potential of stem cells in improving the human condition. Well for you folks who just can not get over using them due to their usual source, how about an induced pluripotent stem cell? This technique allows an adult cell to transform into any kind of differentiated body cell.

The journal Nature Methods recently announced their method of the year, and it is: induced pluripotency. Embryonic stem cells have the potential to be any type of cells, a characteristic known as pluripotency. In 2006, a researcher in Japan announced that he’d genetically reprogrammed mouse fibroblasts—a type of skin cell—to make them pluripotent. These so-called induced pluripotent stem cells, or IPS cells, could now become any cell.

This news was met with shocked skepticism. But since then, scientists have replicated his results. And induced pluripotency has now become common enough that it’s allowing us to study basic biology and disease development and drug screening. This year, for the first time, scientists published studies on human diseases and drug responses using IPS cells.